Out Louder

Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Indirecto Records
• ASIN: B000HKDEJM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,660 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #3 in Music > R&B > Funk > Jazz Funk
  • #12 in Music > Jazz > Soul-Jazz & Boogaloo
  • #32 in Music > Jazz > Jazz Fusion

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

John Scofield is an organic mood these days. On Saudades, the recent release by Trio Beyond, the guitarist hooked up with Hammond B-3 man Larry Goldings (and drummer Jack DeJohnette) to pay tribute to Tony Williams' fusion-pioneering Lifetime. Here, in the role of guest artist, he revives his partnership with organist John Medeski--and bassist Chris Wood and drummer Billy Martin, all of whom backed him on his smartly grooving 1998 effort, A Go Go. As the crunching "Miles Beyond" demonstrates, MSMW has got fusion on its mind, too. But on what may be the futuristic Medeski crew's most aggressively varied effort, they also partake of spaced-out blues jams, Beatles balladry ("Julia"), full-throttle soul, rhythmically recast reggae (Peter Tosh's "Legalize It"), New Orleans tradition ("Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing") and a Brazilian-inflected tune on which Scofield makes like Wes Montgomery. The first album to be issued on MMW's own Indirecto label, Out Louder is a consistently enjoyable world tour that has just the edge and sense of surprise that has been missing on some of Scofield's and MMW's recent albums. --Lloyd Sachs

Product Description

A group that effortlessly straddles the gap between avant-garde improvisation and accessible groove-based jazz, Medeski, Martin, & Wood have simultaneously earned standings as relentlessly innovative musicians and an enormously popular act. Emerging out of the New York downtown scene in the early '90s, the group soon set out on endless cross-country tours, before returning home to Manhattan to further refine their sound through myriad influential experimentations. One of the "big three" of current jazz guitarists (along with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell), Scofield's influence grew in the '90s. Possessor of a very distinctive rock-oriented sound that is often a bit distorted, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, fusion, and soul jazz. He started on guitar while at high school in Connecticut, and from 1970-1973 Scofield studied at Berklee and played in the Boston area. After recording with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker at Carnegie Hall, Scofield was a member of the Billy Cobham-George Duke band for two years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expected. Welcome. Worth the Wait..., September 26, 2006

By 

Kirby (out east) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out Louder (Audio CD)

Save the Chinese Puzzle Box packaging, this disk is just what you've probably been hoping for from this quartet since the long-ago release of A-Go-Go. From the opening track that makes you think of the Meters on HGH, to the two inspired covers that occupy the end of the disk, it does not disappoint. But what does that mean?

Well... for those familiar with (or, more precisely, in love with) such recordnings as Hand Jive, Bump, Shackman, and Friday Afternoon in the Universe, this disk is an expected and welcome new addition to the combined ouevre of these artists. To the unindoctrinated, it WILL have the same gateway drug effect on them that the afforementioned disks have had on so many of us. It's a fan-maker and a fan-pleaser.

If you're a fan, you're buying this. If you're curious, fans should urge you to buy it. Out Louder is part evolution of the out-jazz sounds these artists have cultivated in recent years, married to a big dose of the head-bobbing funk we've loved about them all along.

It is very very good.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable indeed, November 3, 2006

By 

Olukayode Balogun (Leeds, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out Louder (Audio CD)

I'm really enjoying this album. Due to the personnel involved and some of the reviews I'd read, I was thinking it would be very similar to John Scofield's "A Go Go" but to me, it sounds and feels a lot more like "Uberjam" and "Up All Night", the two albums by the John Scofield Band (both of which I highly recommend).

I do have some issues though. Many of the songs, at just over three or four minutes, are so short they start to fade out just as I'm getting into them. I'm guessing the guys are whetting appetites for when they (will surely?) take their show on the road where they'll probably play extended versions of the songs. Some of the songs ("Miles Behind", "What Now", "Down the Tube") I just don't get. They just sound like noise to me, or like a jam session if I am to be more diplomatic. Maybe I'll get them after repeated listening.

Overall though, this is a good set of songs. Personal favourites include the opener, "Little Walter Rides Again", "Hanuman" and "Telegraph"; the sublime "Juila", a Lennon and McCartney song, is for me, worth the price of the CD all on its own; and it's great to hear a jazz version of the Peter Tosh tune, "Legalise It", which was made hugely popular back in the reggaefied 70s both by Tosh himself and the great Johnny Clarke.

Best of all? The CD digipak is made from 100% recycled material, so it's environmentally friendly too!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out Louder: It's growing on me., January 11, 2007

By 

Robert Reuteman "life's soundtrack" (denver,co) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Out Louder (Audio CD)

At times, it sounds like a great guitar-based Miles Davis jam, circa Jack Johnson, but more often it sounds like Booker T. and the MGs on steroids, which is a very good thing. I've got it on heavy rotation, and it yields more with each listening. The opening track ran through my head for about 24 hours earlier this week.